Dining Room: Before, Middle, and After

My dining room has been needing a change.  It was just too crowded.  The problem was I have a ton of dishes and serving platters.

Here was my dining room before.  I never intended on having two buffets.  The room is not big enough for this.  This, along with the fact that I bought these two pieces off of Craigslist in order to rehabilitate them, but hadn't had the chance yet, made this my least favorite room in the house.

So my mom convinced me a trip to Ikea was in order.  Those who know me know it doesn't take that much convincing to go to Ikea.

$80 for the two tower shelves and it looks like a whole new room.  It is much more open and way more usable.

BUT I couldn't leave it like this.  This wonderful change was the kick I needed to refurbish the table and chairs and buffet.

 Now this is my dining room.

Who wants to come over and have dinner?

The Dining Room

My friend Kelsey came this summer to help me with the painting, and we got pretty much the whole main floor painted in the week she was here.  The kitchen and family rooms were by far the biggest transformation, but I have to actually clean those rooms in order to take the 'after' picture so you'll just have to wait.

Before

After

 I think this color goes much better with my chairs.

Another project on my list is sanding and staining the two buffets in this room.